


Orbit

by bygoshbygolly



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Misunderstandings, Pining, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bygoshbygolly/pseuds/bygoshbygolly
Summary: They moved around the house, and each other, as regularly as planets. And, like planets, they never touched.
Relationships: Dethroned and Dishonored Queen/Lone Loyal Female Knight, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Orbit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hernameinthesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hernameinthesky/gifts).



> It's late, but I hope you like it! I love this prompt a lot.

After seven years in exile, five of them in the same small house on the outskirts of a small town, Rina and Mel had a routine. They moved around the house, and each other, as regularly as planets. And, like planets, they never touched.

Mel had tried, once, after Rina saved her kingdom, at the expense of her own reputation. She had reached out a hand, meaning to comfort her queen. Rina flinched away, and Mel understood: she had failed to protect her queen, and would not be permitted to comfort her. Still, Rina did not send her away, and so Mel stayed with her.

It was difficult, to live in a house so small and never come into contact, even fleetingly, but they managed it somehow.

They lived a good life, simple and honest. Mel had come from a town such as this, and found work with the local carpenter. Rina adjusted quickly; she had always been practical. She kept their house and taught the local children when there was an interest in having them taught. There was a garden, and chickens, and a goat that gave milk. They didn't talk about their old life, and what they had left behind, that night Rina rode out to the enemy camp a queen and left an exile.

It was a good life, and Mel knew she should not complain. Not when Rina allowed her to stay by her side. But there were times when Mel's awareness of Rina, the warmth of her skin, the arch of her wrist, the silver glints in her dark hair, were nearly unbearable, and all she wanted to do was touch. Just for the simple pleasure of touching the woman she had loved for over a decade. Just once.

Then there came a storm, and their roof began to leak. Mel, irritated, stood on their kitchen table with a sheet of tarred paper to see if she could patch it, even temporarily.

“Mel, leave it until tomorrow,” said Rina, watching her nervously. “Just put a pot under the leak for now.”

“The noise will keep me up all night,” Mel grumbled. She tilted her head, trying to see where the edges of the hole were. She stepped back.

“Mel!”

And then Mel was half in Rina's arms, one arm at an uncomfortable angle. Happiness flooded her at the contact, the feel of another person, of Rina, touching her, even if it was only to save her from cracking her skull on the floor. She felt almost dizzy with it.

Rina hauled her onto her feet, and, as quickly as she'd caught her, retreated. Right.

“I'm sorry,” said Rina quietly. “I shouldn't have-”

“What?” Mel frowned. “Shouldn't have saved me?”

“You're very capable,” Rina replied, smiling faintly. “I'm sure you would have saved yourself. I know- I know you don't like being touched. Or,” she continued, unfamiliar bitterness tinging her voice, “at least not by me.”

Mel felt dizzy for another reason now, like the world had shifted under her.

“What are you talking about?”

“It's fine,” Rina said. “We don't have to talk about it. This life we have is fine.” 

“Rina.” Mel's arm twitched at her side; she wanted so much to reach out, but years of holding back made her unable to. “Why wouldn't I want to be touched by you? You're my friend, my queen. I was the one who couldn't save you. Unworthy.”

Rina looked up at her, eyes wide with confusion.

“Unworthy? Never.” She took a step forward, and the confusion shifted into something else. Anger, maybe. “You couldn't have saved me from a decision I made myself. You are the only one who knows what I did, my shame, and you stayed with me, although why I could not say. I am the unworthy one, a queen who gave her kingdom to an intruder.”

“To protect your people!” And now Mel was angry. Had Rina thought her decision shameful? It had broken her heart, but it had prevented the slaughter of hundreds. Every time Mel heard someone refer to Rina as the Traitor Queen, she'd had to grit her teeth to keep from telling them otherwise. “I wouldn't stay with an unworthy queen, let alone love one.”

There was silence.

“Oh.” Rina touched her mouth. Mel looked at the ground. “I thought you were ashamed of me. You never talk about before. You hold yourself so distant from me.”

“You flinched,” Mel said quietly. “The one time I tried to hold you. I thought it was me. And you don't talk about before, either.”

“Oh, Mel,” Rina sighed. “We are a pair, aren't we? Believing we know each other's thoughts without asking?”

Mel snorted. 

Rina took another step forward.

At last. Contact.


End file.
